My studio is starting to look like a depot for packing materials. I have had a lot of work out lately, and it’s all come back at the same time. These boxes held wooden boxes with illusionistic rooms inside.
The rooms are constructed so that the cloud that floats back and forth appears to shrink and grow as it traverses the room. These photos were taken without the fish-eye lens that smoothes the illusion. A room that is smaller on one side with a sloped floor is known as an Ames room.
A miniature servo attached to a wheel pulls the cloud back and forth.
With the fish-eye lens in place the room looks straight. Many years ago I made comic strips starring a cloud. Not just any cloud! This was a thought cloud, the sort that normally appears in comics. In my comic strips the thought cloud was the character. In my Ames room sculptures, the cloud has returned and paces like a bored prisoner.
Here I’m adding a separate battery pack for the lights. Soon it will be time to repack them and ship them to the next exhibit.
View Candace’s artwork online at www.candacehicks.com. Stop by Main Street Arts to see her artwork in our current exhibition, Ink and Paper. The exhibition is up through Friday, March 25.
